# HUGS

Building the future of International Student Housing

## Elevator pitch
We help international students find housing easily by evaluating their creditworthiness and connecting them with trustworthy landlords.

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/hugs
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:90284
- Last updated: 2026-06-08T05:00:48Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-08T20:19:49Z

## Quick facts
- 📈253% average revenue growth in August
- 💰Over $85,000 committed in reservations pre-launch + $35,000 in side investments and grants
- 🎓Partnership acquired with top 2 universities in San Diego
- ⭐️Our HUGS Score extracts 60+ different criteria to make a precise creditworthiness assessment
- 🗞Featured in SD Chamber of Commerce, International Affairs Board, and San Diego Business Journal
- ❤️Founders have intimate first-hand experience with the problem

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:47306: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:47742: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)

## Story
Hassle-Free Housing for Internationals: Fast & Secure. No SSN. No Credit Score!ProblemInternational students face major obstacles in obtaining housing in the USEvery year 70% of International Students that come to study in the U.S. are unable to secure off-campus housingInternational students face these issues by lacking a credit score 60% cite the lack of ssn as an issue in securing housing. Without a credit score or social security number to generate a credit score international students have no way of proving how qualified they are as potential tenants. SolutionHelp International Students and Landlords better understand one another HUGS is building the future of International Student Housing by being one of a kind. 1️⃣   International students create an account on the HUGS website.2️⃣   Students upload their documents and are calculated a HUGS Score!3️⃣   Students can now secure housing and browse worry free - all this can be done before they even step foot into the U.S.!HUGS is here to innovate. The HUGS advantage:✅  No Credit Score / SSN Required✅  Secure housing before arrival to the U.S.✅  Turnkey solutions to find a new place✅  Access to large tenant pool ✅  Ability to qualify a tenantBusiness ModelWhy HUGS worksOur Proprietary Rating SystemThe Market Opportunity✅  Market Share: There are no leading companies in this space.✅  Go to Market: Target the 11 - 17k international students coming to San Diego, then target nationwide aiming for the 1.1M international students that are in the U.S.✅  Market Opportunity: In California alone, we are looking at over $177,000,000 with nationwide sitting at about $747,000,000.The CompetitionIn our current market, international students have few options when searching for housing, all of which require them to have either a social security number or a credit score.Key MilestonesHUGS' Initial SuccessThe HUGS visionWhat's next for HUGSOUR FOUNDER'S STORYHow Carl created HUGSTHE TEAM"When Life Gives You Lemons - Make Lemonade." - Elbert HubbartThis is one of the best quotes that sums up our humble beginning and encapsulates what HUGS does. All of our foundational members came together through a bond and sympathy for the issue. Just hear how some of our founding members were inspired to join.Akash Atapattu - CTO"I first met Carl and heard about HUGS through the USD Fowler Business competition. As an international student who has had many friends struggle to find housing in the US, Carl's idea immediately struck me as a necessary solution to a nationally prevalent problem. When I learned that HUGS needed help with engineering in January of 2021, I immediately joined the team to build the future of student housing."Russell Leong - COO"When I met Carl during my previous role at a startup, I immediately connected over our shared background as international students, and our mutual passion for entrepreneurship. HUGS’s mission deeply resonated with me and I jumped at the opportunity to leverage my operations background to create a better environment for other international students here in the US."What Do People Say About Us?“On Nov. 15, a problem-solving idea generated by Dumesle and d’Amours resulted in an entrepreneurial victory. The inaugural $45,000 Fowler Business Concept Challenge (FBCC) hosted by the equally new Entrepreneurship and innovation Catalyzer in the USD School of Business awarded the duo’s idea, Housing for Undergraduates and Graduate Students (HUGS), as the top prize winner of $15,000 in scholarship money, both increasing awareness of the issue and working toward a solution.” - USD News Center, 2019

## FAQ
1. **a. We are interested in how you construct your HUGS score and how you validate its usefulness. As to its construction, can you explain how you measure student maturity and eligibility? b. Can you tell us more about your competitors in terms of other ways for students, generall...**
   - Hey Shannon, thank you for your questions! Happy to have you with us! a. Our HUGS Score extracts ~60 criteria from the documentation that international students provide to the Federal Government to gain entry to the US for their education. Among these qualifying measures is the requirement to display the availability of funds in liquid assets (mostly cash) to cover their full year of expenses, tuition, and living expenses (rent, food, transportation, books, etc.). The output is a score on a s...
2. **Hi! I was curious to know how many states and cities is your service available in?**
   - Hello Carlos! Thanks for asking! We're currently serving San Diego, CA (our home), and just signed up properties in Los Angeles, CA, and in Dekalb, IL with more coming very soon ;)
3. **Hey HUGS! Is there a plan to get a return for investors?**
   - Hello Zosire! Thanks for your question! Of course; our goal is to reward our investors handsomely for trusting us from the start of our journey. As the investment is a SAFE, a return will occur at the first major liquidation event. So whenever a future large round, acquisition, or public listing comes around, it will present an opportunity for you to have a return. Attend our Investor Webinar using the link below to have more questions answered! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hugs-investor-webi...
4. **This is a really smart solution to overcoming a market failure which causes unnecessary difficulties for many students. As a fellow immigrant, even one arriving mid-career and married to a US citizen, I experienced many examples of cases where this caused a problem and I’m sur...**
   - Hello Iain, I appreciate the question. You hit the nail right on the head! 1) Definitely! As we grow, we'll implement measures to intake/process data more efficiently and have access to additional data sources. We know of a few players in the space we can explore partnerships with. 2) You are right again! Our "HUGS Ecosystem" on our pitch deck signifies this. Once we've built the score well enough, we can toggle specific characteristics that would be relevant to different industries and make ...

## Team
- Carl Dumesle (Co-Founder & CEO)
- Akash Atapattu (Co-Founder & CTO)
- Russell Leong (Co-Founder & COO)
- Aymed Rodriguez Ortiz (CMO)
- Kamyar Saii (VP of Sales & Partnerships)
- Trent Tomoyasu (Creative Director)

## Q&A
- Q: Hi! I was curious to know how many states and cities is your service available in?
  - A: Hello Carlos! Thanks for asking! We're currently serving San Diego, CA (our home), and just signed up properties in Los Angeles, CA, and in Dekalb, IL with more coming very soon ;)
- Q: a. We are interested in how you construct your HUGS score and how you validate its usefulness. As to its construction, can you explain how you measure student maturity and eligibility? b. Can you tell us more about your competitors in terms of other ways for students, generally, to find housing? Besides your Hugs score, how do you compete in terms of finding students and finding housing? How important are Colleges and Universities as competitors and how do you compete against them? c. You mention that you hope to expand nationally by 2023. Could you talk more specifically about your expansion plan, target areas, partners, how your experience in acquiring partners, housing owners and students is informing your plan? d. Can you explain how you utilize your university partnerships, social media and college test prep agencies to source students. How do you evaluate these different channels in terms of their cost and effectiveness? e. How did you come up with your price points for landlords and students? Do you expect to keep this pricing scheme as you grow? f. Your recent announcement of the partnership with Staykeepers is exciting. Can you tell us about how they were recruited and how your relationship will work going forward? Thank you for your responses!
  - A: Hey Shannon, thank you for your questions! Happy to have you with us! a. Our HUGS Score extracts ~60 criteria from the documentation that international students provide to the Federal Government to gain entry to the US for their education. Among these qualifying measures is the requirement to display the availability of funds in liquid assets (mostly cash) to cover their full year of expenses, tuition, and living expenses (rent, food, transportation, books, etc.). The output is a score on a similar scale to legacy credit scoring systems that Landlords are already using. b. 1. Off-Campus Housing (Listing Websites and Social Media Groups): Although these methods do a good job creating awareness of housing, they perform poorly in terms of access to housing for international students. 2. On-Campus Housing: Although it may seem so on the surface, we don’t consider Universities as direct competitors. The fact is that, although they also house international students without the need for credit, Universities don’t have the space to house every student; international or not. c. Check out our expansion map plan! You can also contact investors@hugsintl.com to obtain a copy! d. Test Prep Agencies/Visa Consultants/Tutors/Test administrators: This channel acts as a “Top of the funnel” strategy. Since an international student’s journey starts with these entities, we can start creating brand awareness with the demographic before they reach the US. e. Our pricing model is backed by interviews with landlords, real estate professionals, and real estate investors, and tech industry professionals. We expect the market to react and pivot accordingly. So far, we have not had much negative pushback. Different geographies will come with new lessons; we are prepared to learn and modify as we expand. f. I met the CEO of Staykeepers in April/May of this year. As we both navigate the housing space and had plans to crowdfund, Ivo and I got along. I stayed in touch to explore our synergies and ways we’d be able to create value. Our relationship has resulted in this partnership that is poised to boost our expansion throughout California. With their connection to available supply, we gained access to ~100 new units in Los Angeles this week and will operate on a revenue-sharing model.
- Q: Hey HUGS! Is there a plan to get a return for investors?
  - A: Hello Zosire! Thanks for your question! Of course; our goal is to reward our investors handsomely for trusting us from the start of our journey. As the investment is a SAFE, a return will occur at the first major liquidation event. So whenever a future large round, acquisition, or public listing comes around, it will present an opportunity for you to have a return. Attend our Investor Webinar using the link below to have more questions answered! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hugs-investor-webinar-tickets-221734713497
- Q: This is a really smart solution to overcoming a market failure which causes unnecessary difficulties for many students. As a fellow immigrant, even one arriving mid-career and married to a US citizen, I experienced many examples of cases where this caused a problem and I’m sure it’s far worse for students. I often wondered why there wasn’t a way for credit scores and other data from home countries, where available, To be incorporated into US assessments. Two questions (1) are you looking at incorporating home country data beyond the visa application (which is a great standardised place to start) and (2) could the HUGS assessment be used to help students access other services aside from rent?
  - A: Hello Iain, I appreciate the question. You hit the nail right on the head! 1) Definitely! As we grow, we'll implement measures to intake/process data more efficiently and have access to additional data sources. We know of a few players in the space we can explore partnerships with. 2) You are right again! Our "HUGS Ecosystem" on our pitch deck signifies this. Once we've built the score well enough, we can toggle specific characteristics that would be relevant to different industries and make it applicable to them. Similar to how legacy scoring systems have auto/mortgage-specific versions of their base score. Happy to chat further; let's schedule a call -> investors@hugsintl.com